Headed by Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza a bench of the ECP had earlier reserved the verdict after hearing final arguments of Gulalai’s lawyer on the reference.

The five-member bench gave a 3-2 split verdict, rejecting the reference with two members dissenting from the majority opinion.

Speaker of the National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq had sent the reference to the ECP to decide it within 30 days in accordance with the law.

PTI chief Imran Khan had requested the speaker to disqualify her for violating the party discipline by not participating in voting for PTI’s nominated candidate Sheikh Rasheed in the election for the prime minister’s office.

Gulalai shot to prominence after she announced to left the party in spectacular fashion and accused the PTI chief of misogyny and sending her inappropriate text messages. She also alleged that women were not respected in the PTI and she had quit over differences with the party leadership. All charges have been dismissed by the party.

Gulalai was sent a show cause notice after the press conference to explain her actions but she failed to respond. The party sent a final notice to Ayesha Gulalai, a copy of which was also sent to the ECP and Speaker National Assembly.